The ski area at Hurricane Ridge opened on January 1, 1958 with two rope tows that were relocated from the Deer Park ski area, which was located east of Port Angeles. The relocation was part of the National Park Service’s Mission 66, an ambitious $1 billion program to revitalize national parks across the country over a ten-year period starting in 1956. One said project was to build a paved, two-lane road directly from Port Angeles to Hurricane Ridge. Mission 66 was so named because it was to conclude in 1966, the 50th anniversary of the Park Service.

Prior to the relocation, Deer Park was Washington’s premier ski area in the 1930s.Thanks to the U.S. Forest Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps, there was a road, a lodge and by 1936 a ski tow. A 1939 Black Ball Line ad in the Washington Motorist promoted “a new, unsurpassed ski field” and a “good road to the ski lodge.” The so-called “good road” was a treacherous, one lane, dirt Forest Service road (uphill before 2 PM; down after 3 PM), and the “ski lodge” was a CCC crew barracks and cookhouse with dormitory-style bunks (girls upstairs, boys downstairs; bring your own bedding).  The ski tow was a very short rope tow powered by a motorcycle engine. Despite its lack of opulence, the operators of Deer Park, the Olympic Ski Club held their first championship meet in March of 1938 which drew 800 competitors and spectators.

Not much has changed since 1958. Both the motor running the Intermediate and the one running the Poma are original and so are the motor shacks that house them. In 1971 a Poma surface lift was added, expanding the inbound skiable acreage and then in the mid 1980s Ice Station Zebra was constructed  to serve as the operations center for the volunteer Ski Patrol.        

For further information on the history of skiing in the Olympic Mountains, see Roger Merrill Oakes, Skiing in the Olympic National Park.